11 April 2012

Speed Data Worrying



The most recent traffic data to go to the Road Safety Committee (11/4/12) has some worrying statistics for Goodwood South. There has not been significant increases in the volume of traffic in the streets where the data is collected, however, the speed of traffic has increased in many streets. If the data shows 30-50% of vehicles exceed the posted speed limit the Speed Observation Sign is deployed by Council (this machine tells you how fast you are traveling). If more than 50% of vehicles are exceeding the posted limit, and the 85% speed is 15-20% over the posted limit then the information is passed to police for enforcement. That is they become the most likely streets that people will be penalised for speeding. The SOS sign has been deployed in Chelmsford St, Hartland Ave and East Ave. Police have been given the data for enforcement in Aroha Tce, Byron Rd and Frederick St.

This data confirms my view that an area study for the streets bounded by South Rd, the railway line, East Ave and Forest Ave is long overdue; while promised in this year's budget is likely to be undertaken in 2012/13.

The data collected in the middle of 2011 for each street in which data is collected can be found at;

1 comment:

  1. The fact that speed limits are being constantly exceeded suggests that motorists are voting with their pedals re speed restrictions in the Unley Council area. It seems that every traffic problem is ‘solved’ by reducing speed limits somewhere. When turning onto East Ave from Cross Roads there is often not a car to be seen in East Ave during non peak times and yet the speed limit changes from 60kph to 50 kph. East Ave is a major thoroughfare and it is hard to see why the different speed limit exists there. At peak times it is slow moving anyway. Similarly, Victoria Street, Goodwood is a major cross road , yet here the speed limit goes down to 40 kph. I can understand that the Unley Council wants to force traffic onto the major roads, but South Road and Goodwood Roads during peak hour cannot cope with that volume of traffic already. I suggest that the Unley Council should follow the example of some overseas urban areas where they have removed signs and restrictions and found that the traffic flows more freely. Byron Road with its 5 slowpoints and at least 25 extra signs has created a problem where none existed before. Think creatively rather than putting the brakes on all the time.

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